Art, Artifice, and Entheodelic Storytelling

For my inaugural podcast, Electric Lyre: Alterations of Consciousness, I sat down with J.F. Martel (author of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice) and Benton Rooks (Disinfo writer and author of the graphic novels KALI YUGA and TRETA YUGA).

In the tradition of the multi-hour podcasts I find myself often listening to – like The Joe Rogan Experience and DTFH – we rambled on art, culture, and consciousness for nearly 2 hours. Benton discussed his work with KALI and TRETA YUGA, two of his graphic novels, the notion of entheodelic storytelling, and J.F. Martel talked about his upcoming publication through North Atlantic Books – Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice: A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action.

We also explored the topic of art commonly labeled in psychedelic counterculture as “visionary,” or “psychedelic.” For our part, Benton, Graham Hancock, Rak Razam and myself developed the term “entheodelic” as a means to describe art that is intentionally spiritual, or mystical: initiatory art. “Etheodelica is an anti-brand with zero dogma,” Benton writes here, “an international paradigm that exists to respect and explore the central mystery of consciousness.”

I hope you’ll enjoy my foray into the podcasting world, Disinfonauts. The “Electric Lyre” is a podcast for the consciousness culture. I hope to cross some wires with it. After all, it’s Hermes who I had in mind in the naming process. The god of communication, crossroads, the messenger. Its subtitle, “Alterations of Consciousness” is a term I borrowed from Imants Baruss in his text, Alterations of Consciousness: An Empirical Analysis for Social Scientists.

There’s an awful lot going on in the so-called “consciousness culture,” and I hope my podcast can facilitate as an intriguing marketplace where ideas can meet. Psychnoauts and mystics, yogis, academics, and chaos magicians – each and all are welcome. Send me a message if you’re interested in joining me for an episode: jeremy (at) evolver (dot) net.

J.F. Martel wrote his thoughts about the podcast here, as did Benton. Enjoy. Do let me know what you think.

Jeremy is a writer of short stories and essays, a blogger, rogue academic and new media scholar. He received his MA from Goddard in Consciousness Studies and a BA from Fordham in Sociology. Exploring the interstices of myth, media and religious experience, his writing attempts to outline the direction of our interconnected age and an integral culture.